DE 10 2004 051 923 A1 discloses a deep-drawing packaging machine with a sealing station which is designed to allow a sealing plate to rest on a lower sealing tool part together with a base plate comprising heating elements, a cover plate, a pressure plate and a further base plate as a common assembly. This common assembly is releasably attached to a housing of an upper sealing tool part. This configuration permits the accessibility for changing or servicing the tools is permitted. To be able to remove the sealing plate from the assembly and to also change parts of the lower sealing tool part which are designed depending on format, the assembly is withdrawn from the machine as a unit, and the sealing plate may be screwed off from the base plate outside the deep-drawing packaging machine.
EP 0 467 069 A1 shows a deep-drawing packaging machine with a forming station and a sealing station each comprising lower tool parts that may be laterally pulled out of the deep-drawing packaging machine on rails in order to be able to change format-depending insets or dividers at the lower tool part without having to remove a film web above the lower tool parts.
Deep-drawing packaging machines are known in which the sealing plate is releasably connected to the upper sealing tool part with threaded joints which are accessible by an operator at the upper side of an upper sealing tool part. Before the sealing plate is released, however, film webs which are guided through the sealing station must be removed or cut out such that, after having loosened the threaded joints, the operator can reach under the still heated sealing plate with one hand, which is protected by a heat-resistant safety glove, to grip the sealing plate with his/her hand and remove it from the sealing station. Such handling is on the one hand dangerous as often a still very hot tool must be gripped with one hand, and on the other hand, relatively large and therefore heavy sealing plates can no longer be handled ergonomically with one hand in this manner. The assembly or insertion of the sealing plate into the upper sealing tool part is difficult, especially because usually only a small gap between the outer contour of the sealing plate and the matching inner contour of the upper sealing tool part is provided. The sealing plate must be held at the upper sealing tool part manually until it is sufficiently, or at least partially, fastened.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved sealing plate and sealing frame configuration for a sealing station of a packaging machine and a method for removing or replacing such sealing plate and sealing frame that makes it easier and safer to remove and/or change the sealing plate and sealing frame.